Deception
by TheHildur92
Summary: Finch makes an unusal discovery when he spies on his partner in a bar. Where will the revelation lead?


_Just another Friday night, _I thought to myself as I sat down in front of my computers. This was my haven from the world outside, by watching the world from the safety of the screens I did not often have to face the violence and threats that my partner did.

At the thought of John Reese, a small shiver ran down my spine. As I wondered where he was tonight, I logged onto the computer. Since we had not been presented with a new Number for three days, I had given my partner the night off.

My question was soon answered, however, when my monitors came to life, revealing a live camera feed from some bar or another. I instantly recognised the features of my handsome partner, sitting at the bar, and nursing a drink. He was still clad in the clothes from earlier, a tailored dark-blue suit, and looked like someone had shot Bear, which was quite surprising seeing as he had seemed normal when I had dismissed him three hours ago. What had changed in the course of these three hours?

"You want me to see this?" I addressed the computer screen. An interruption flitted across the screen before it went back to normal. The Machine clearly had every intention of me watching the situation which was about to unfold. She was obviously directing me to this camera feed for a reason. Since I had never known Her to steer me wrong, I decided to go along with this, for the moment at least.

A beautiful female bartender poured my partner another drink and despite the noise around them, I could make out her words. "I get off at nine, handsome."

I was about to shut down the camera feed, having no intention of watching as my partner laid the groundwork for taking some floozy to his bed. Yet, something in the face of Reese stopped my hand. John gulped down his drink, and assessed the woman before responding. "Ordinarily, I would not hesitate to accept an offer from someone like yourself, but not tonight. Perhaps some other time."

"Did you have an arguement with the little wife?" She seemed genuienly interested in the plight of my partner, and he seemed drunk enough to have entered the confidante stage.

"Since I have had too much to drink, I will make you my confidante," he responded as he leaned across the counter. He came close to her and I would have missed his next words unless I had not learned to read lips years earlier. "I am gay."

This immediately roused the attention of the perky barkeep, and she called out to her colleague to replace her, as she was taking her break. Thus, without no more ado, she climbed over the bar and sat down on the stool next to John. She introduced herself as Lila and then began her interrogation."You are having problems with the boyfriend then?"

"No, the problem would be the lack of one," countered my partner.

Lila clicked her tongue at the roof of her mouth, as if saying she had already guessed the truth. "Let me guess. You have someone special in mind?"

"Yes," John returned levelly. "But it is complicated. We are friends…"

My thoughts ran around, trying desperately to remember a man Reese might have socialised with during the last few months, but I came up empty. Aside from Numbers, he only ever interacted with Shaw, Carter and myself.

"…and he is my boss." At this, my jaw nearly dropped to the floor. He was speaking of me?

"That stinks of complications."

"Yes, indeed it does." My partner finished his drink and the barkeep motioned for a colleague to bring him another to keep him talking. He took a gulp and then turned to Lila. "Do you want to know something funny?"

"Always," she returned.

"He is this funny little nerd with glasses, a reclusive billionaire who collects rare books. And yet, I could not help falling in love with him. We run a charity together, and somehow, his strengths are my weaknesses and his weaknesses are my strengths. Apart, we are a mess, but together, we somehow create…"

"…a whole," Lila finished for him. John looked to her and nodded.

"Yet, you have never told him how you felt."

"Well, with such a scenario come obvious complications. I lost my girlfriend about five years ago, and after that, went down a dark path. I lost my job and became homeless."

"Until, one day, there he was."

"He gave me a purpose, to run the charity. He saved me in more ways then one. Due to our differences, however, working together has not always proved to be a walk in the park."

"You had to build up your friendship, brick by brick."

"Therefore, you can understand my reluctance to confess my feelings. Should he not return them, my boss may fire me and purposefully evict me from his life. I would rather be in his life as a friend, then not to be a part of it at all."

"But at what cost?" Lila regarded my partner with an inquisitive gaze. "You are sitting here drinking, and it is only nine in the evening. Perhaps the prize for remaining in his life is too great."

"Yet, that will not stop me."

"I shall tell you a story about myself. I had a boyfriend at sixteen, but being young and stupid, I felt I did not want to be tied down. I ended up cheating on the boy I loved with some motorcycle dude. As my luck would have it, my boyfriend found out and dumped me. He is now happily married and I see him sometimes. Each time, I cannot help but wonder what might have been. I will never know, but perhaps you can at least tell your boss how you feel."

"Do you really think so?"

"Yes. A man who picks you up from the gutters, gives you a job and a purpose is not going to evict you from his life when he learns you want to give him a blowjob."

"You know, I am ex-military, and yet I would prefer to face a grenade then confess my true feelings for him."

"We are all cowards when it comes to love." My partner arose from his chair and kissed the barkeep on the cheek and ran out the door with the purpose of Hannibal marching across the Alps. I knew what his next destination would be.

I paced the floor in deep distress, wondering how to deal with the situation now unfolding in front of me. I had, after all, been aware of the feelings my employee fostered for me for the duration of six months. When the true meaning of his lingering glances had finally dawned on me, there had been only two choices open to me. Either I confronted John with the knowledge or acted like I was oblivious to what was staring me in the face. I decided after a lot of soul-searching to take the latter option, realizing that John would never confess his true feelings for me, being as private as he was. I had never allowed myself to see John Reese as anything besides a valued asset, who I had picked for his endurance and strength. I had not allowed myself to consider my true feelings for him or that he might one day break and confess all.

Apparently, today was that day.

After an agonizing half an hour, he finally arrived at the Library. I had been pacing the floor for the entire time, waiting in silent and fearful anticipation for his appearence. When he finally arrived, however, he found me sitting in a chair in an apparently relaxed position with a book on my knee, as if I had been there all night.

Bear got up to greet his master, and then returned to his haven on the floor. For a few moments in time, the silence was penetrating, and I decided that I would be the one to break it when John made no effort to speak.

"What draws you to my neck of the woods at this late hour, Mr. Reese?" I wanted nothing more then to call him John, however, I decided to maintain the facade for a few moments at least. My eyes never left my book.

"I must speak with you, Harold." There was no mistaking the urgency in that voice and I shivered at the sound. What that man could do to me simply by uttering a sentence!

"Before you do, I suggest you look at the monitors." I heard the echo of his footsteps as he made his way over the computers, and the gasp that followed once he realized what he was looking at.

John turned around and pierced me with his green eyes, all signs of the alcohol evaporated. "You were spying on me?" he yelled increduously.

"No," I clarified. "The Machine was."

"And you heard everything?"

"Yes."

I could hear his footsteps as he walked over to my chair and retrieved the book from my lap, forcing me to finally look up into his handsome face. He was regarding me in a suspicious manner, trying to read me like I had the book. Finally, he summed up his conclusion. "You are not angry, outraged?"

"No, Mr. Reese. Frankly, I may perhaps be a nerd in your book, but I am not oblivious." He cringed as I mentioned the conversation with the bartender earlier, and then walked away to stand in front of one of the windows to look out onto the light of the city which illuminated his face brilliantly. He ran a hand through his short dark locks, his first betrayal of the nervousness he was feeling. While he had never done this dance before, not even with Jessica, I had.

"I meant for my confession to be as romantic as hell, Harry." His new nickname for me startled me for a moment, but then a smile appeared on my face. Gone apparently were the days when he would call me Finch. I could live with that.

"It was, Jay." I decided to encounter with a new nickname of my own, and his head whipped around when he heard it but then he gave a smile with a hint of sadness in it. Undoubtedly, he thought that I would reject him in the aftermath, he could imagine how the friendship we had built brick by brick would come crashing down and be reduced to ashes. "It was our kind of romance."

"Ours?"

"Ours," I returned steadfastly and assuredly while my hands gripped the arms of the leather chair. At my words, his sad smile turned into a brilliant dazzling thing, capable of outshining even the sun itself.

Slowly, he walked towards me and came to stand in front of me. In wordless invitation, I allowed him to come closer by moving the leg I had been resting on my knee so that he should have better access. He gently removed my glasses and placed them on a sideboard. His hands came to rest on either side of my chair and he leaned down to join our foreheads together. He did not make the final move, so in the end it was me who placed my hand on the back of his neck and brought our lips together. His scent, so uniquely John, filled my senses and I returned his kisses with fervour.

John pulled me out of my chair and wrapped his hands possessively around my waist while my hands began to play in his dark locks, the ones I had longed for so long to run my hands through. His tongue invaded me mouth and I allowed him to explore at will, opening up to him like a flower opens its petals for the rain. I had made the decision while listening in on his conversation, I could no longer hold him at bay and neither did I wish to. He had broken though my barricades and conquered the fort.

Suddenly, he stopped kissing me, looked down upon me with those impossibly green eyes and pulled me into a hug. I allowed the gesture, remembering the one time before such physical contact had taken place between us. It was when John got shot and nearly lost his life.

When he pulled away, he regarded me with a question in his eyes and I nodded in response. He removed his coat and tie, and began to undo the buttons of his shirt, revealing the scars below as he headed for the bedroom I had created in the Library to use when I did not feel like going home. I knew all of them already, of course, after having accessed his medical records containing every injury he had ever sustained. Tonight, however, would be the first time I could actually touch and explore every inch of that gloriously toned body.

I shivered at the thought, and was about to head for the bedroom when John's phone beeped. Intrigued, I reached into his coat pocket and read the text message. _Do not forget to pay me tomorrow. Hope the plan worked. Lila._


End file.
